AN: I was watching Eclipse why I was typing this. It seems a lot better the second time. I still don't like how they changed the graphics of the vampires running though. I was also contemplating doing a Twilight fanfic. Just thoughts, if I find the time. Work and sleep take up too much. I used to work at night but since I moved(literally moved too far away from my old work) I had to transfer stores and now I work during the day which is new to me but at the same time is fucking time consuming. When I used to work at night I would come home every morning and update. Now the mornings that I work when I come home in the afternoon my boyfriend is on the computer playing world of warcraft. I really need to set my computer up lol. Thank you for your continuing support!
The tires crunch against the gravel driveway then quickly hit the smooth pavement of the road. I sit here in silence waiting for Damon to speak, not knowing the exact range of hearing that vampires may have.
I'm making sure that he isn't following us. Damon's eyes are moving rapidly between the road and the forest next to us.
Do you really think that he would? I ask him as I look at his face which looks as if its set in stone. I can tell that his jaw is tight but he is trying not to let his anger get to him.
Don't you?
Yes. I reply to him as I look in the trees that line the road. My eyes only catch a few small animals moving about. Most of the leaves have fallen off of the trees making it easy to see through the clearings. Maybe he isn't that stupid, maybe he'll stay at the boarding house.
No he really is that stupid, it never ceases to amaze me how much he think he can get by me. Damon is tightening his grip around the steering wheel of his old muscle car. I don't know what he's up to but typical Stefan I know that he's plotting something. He is acting way too friendly. Its safe to talk.
"Its like when Stefan was trying to 'help' you get the tomb open, its like he is acting the same way. Overly friendly." I say to him thinking back to how Stefan had asked me to help trick Damon. I feel bad for it, I feel bad for how blinded I was. The guilt at times feels over whelming.
"Do you know what the really fucked up part of that was? I was actually starting to trust him again, actually starting to remember that he's my brother. Of course it always ends in him betraying me, I should have known better, I guess I was too blinded by how you were acting to see what Stefan was doing." Damon slams his foot down on the gas, the engine roars as the car speeds down the empty road towards the main part of the town.
The sharp cutting edge to his words don't help the guilt that I still feel over what I did. After that night I felt for him, not in a way that I felt sorry for him but in a way that I wanted to make him feel better. I really think that was when I started to realize that he was just a person who had their heart ripped out by the woman that he loved and by his own blood.
"You know that I'm sorry about what had happened. You understand though that then I didn't fully realize what Stefan was doing, I also didn't realize the reason why you are the way you are was because of him and Katherine." I feel the ache in my chest, like a pressure weighing down on me with the aching of my own heart. My chest is getting tight and with each unneeded breath I can feel it getting tighter.
Damon lets go of his death grip on the steering wheel along with letting off of the gas with the car falling down to the speed limit. "Its not your fault, I don't blame you for any part that you took in what happened in the past. It did hurt at the time though. After the incident with the tomb I was beyond a mess, I couldn't think properly. There were way too many thoughts that were spinning around in my head, I couldn't pick them out. Everything seemed to blur together. Except for you, you were the one thing that seemed to stand out from all of that. I'm grateful that you were there, that you are who you are Elena. Without you I would have drained this whole town dry with no regrets."
The ache in my chest fades with his words as a small smile plays at my lips. I needed his reassurance. The car pulls up to the Lockwood's house, if the house could even be called that, I guess its more of a mansion. There are a few cars parked in the long curved driveway including the sheriff's cruiser.
"Is it really appropriate to be having the meetings here? I mean since Mayor Lockwood passed?" I ask as I get out of the car looking up at the white walls of the mansion.
"The council insisted to have the meeting here, or at least did. I think that she is trying to keep her husbands cause alive or whatever she wants to call it. " Damon shuts his car door walking over to the side of the car that I am on. We begin to walk up the long stretch up into the house.
I feel Damon's hand slide into my own as his fingers twine with mine. His small action takes me by surprise. I'm still not used to him being this way but at the same time it feels so right. I wrap my fingers tightly around his as we reach the door. The door opens just as Damon is about to knock to see standing there. Her hair is still the same cropped dirty blonde, her make up intact to perfection just like it always was. The only difference is her eyes that are filled with grief. There are dark circles underneath them indicating that she hasn't had any sleep in probably days. Long nights of staying up crying over the loss of her husband.
I know that the loss in her eyes isn't evident to the rest of the world, not as much as it is to me at least. I can sense it too in a small way. How scared she feels over why her husband was taken that night knowing that he wasn't a vampire. I can almost smell the fear. I can hear her heart beating in her chest, the flow of her blood coursing through her veins. The burning in my throat that for the most part is just a small background annoyance to me moves to the front of my thoughts. The burning becoming more evident with each heart beat.
"Elena I didn't know that you were coming to the meeting today." Her voice is trying to sound cheerful, a façade that she is trying to put on for everyone else doesn't slide past me or Damon.
"I talked to Sheriff Forbes, she is aware of Elena attending today, its imperative that she is here today." Damon's free hand clasps over mine that is already twined with his. The smile on his face is beyond charming, the fact that he is a vampire just adds to his already appealing allure.
"Well come on in." She steps aside making room for us to come in. Damon walks in ahead of me, my hand still in his. I pause there for a moment still outside my feet at the edge of the threshold. Damon turns around looking at me an eyebrow raised, waiting for me to come in. I move my foot forward, stepping into the house. I breath a sigh of relief. I was expecting it not to work for some reason. For something to go horribly wrong, not letting me inside the house.
Damon leads us down a long hallway to a parlor at the end of it. There are already all of the founding families gathered there. Including John representing the Gilbert's. His eyes are stone on Damon and I as we enter the room. My eyes run over him to see that his fingers that Katherine had ruthlessly cut off were sewn back on, covered in bandages are they are trying to heal. As I look at his hands I notice that his ring that he was wearing is gone. Good. I think to myself as I take my place next to Damon in the room.
I asked Damon to save him that night in the kitchen when I was dying. I asked him because I didn't want his death on my own conscious. If Katherine decides to come for him again at least I wont have that ring to save him anymore, a thought that in a way makes me feel just a little bit better. He doesn't deserve to live, I just wont kill him myself.
I can pick out each distinct heart beat and which person it belongs to in the room. Their breathing is quiet compared to the noise of their hearts. The burning in my throat turns into an incinerating pain, almost as if the flesh and tissue in my throat is actually burning. I close my eyes for a moment trying to concentrate, trying to keep my features from turning. I begin to imagine all the warm blood flowing through them. Their warm beating hearts, the sweet sick taste of each persons blood as it flows freely from their necks as I sink my teeth into them one by one. I open my eyes to look around the positioning of the room. I would have enough time to kill all of them before they could make it out of the house.
Concentrate, I know that you are stronger than the thirst. Damon's thoughts break through my own.
What am I thinking?
I brush the thoughts away, trying my hardest to ignore the sounds of their hearts along with the scent of their flesh. I wont hurt anyone, I refuse to be Katherine. I wont let this control me. I keep concentrating on my hatred for the girl that I look so much alike. My hatred for her is enough for me to dull the thirst. I take all of my full concentration to listen to Sheriff Forbes who is standing at the front of the room.
"I'm glad that everyone was able to make it today. Now that everything has been taken care of it has come to my attention that we needed to have a meeting. The night of the Founder's Day celebration all of the vampire from the tomb were killed. It is unfortunate that night that we lost Mayor Lockwood, something that we are still trying to figure exactly how it happened. Apparently there is a new vampire in town though, something that Damon and John can help enlighten us with." Sheriff Forbes says as she laces her fingers in on the holster of her belt. Every once and a while her head looking down towards the ground.
John moves from the back of the room to the front as Damon's hand finally lets go of my own as he meets John up there. "There is a new threat to the town, one greater than a whole tomb of vampires. I have faced her myself and I am beyond lucky to be alive. Lucky that Damon was there to call someone for me." John says with a smirk as he looks over at Damon. Damon's eyes meet his for a moment but quickly move back to the founding families.
"He's right. She'll destroy this town. Her name is Katherine and she was suppose to be in the tomb with the other vampires. Of course being who she is one of the men who was in charge of putting them in the tomb was smitten with her and let her go. I don't know why she is back, it might have something to do with all of the escaped vampires, she showed up the night of the Founder's Day celebration. We haven't seen her since but that doesn't meant that she isn't here." Damon says as he watches the faces of everyone in the room.
"There is something that makes Katherine more dangerous than all of the vampires that were locked away. Something that makes her more dangerous than most vampires that walk this earth. It isn't just her disregard for humanity." John says cutting into Damon's speech. Damon glares over at him before finally finishing what he was trying to say.
"Katherine looks just like Elena. Not just in the way that they have some similarities, I mean they are identical, you wont really be able to find a difference between the two of them." Damon says as he reads the shocked expressions of everyone in the room.
"How is that even possible? Are they related?" Sheriff Forbes pipes up from where she is standing against one of the dark oak walls of the house.
"That is something that I have yet to find out, something that I wish I knew, trust me. You need to understand how dangerous this makes Katherine though. She will deceive you into thinking that she is Elena, that's how she got John over here." Damon says as he tries to hold back a smirk, taking an enjoyment in what Katherine did to John. John doesn't say anything this time, instead he tries to cover the bandages of his injured fingers with his other hand. "You can not invite her into your home, no matter what. It is important to your own survival that you protect yourselves. I'll be bringing more vervain, you'll be needing it more than ever now. That's why I brought Elena here today, you need to know that this is what you will be fearing now. Katherine will kill every once of us just because she is bored."
"How do you know?" Sheriff Forbes asks Damon a curious look on her face.
"That is just the type of vampire she is. I have read countless entries on her, I spend all of my spare time studying the history of the town." Damon flashes the Sheriff a smile causing her to look down, a rush of blood going to her cheeks. "I'll have the vervain by the end of the week. I suggest putting it in our water supply again. Everyone in the town will be immune to her compulsion, it will give us a small advantage."
"Thank you Damon, this town is very grateful for all of the help that you have been giving us." Sheriff Forbes says as she steps away from her post against the wall. "I will let everyone know when we get the vervain, just remember what you were told here today." It is the dismissal for everyone to leave, something which I am beyond thankful for. Damon immediately walks back over to me, his hand once again finding my own. A comfort that helps remind me why I am not turning into Katherine. Damon guides me out of the house, the sun light hitting my eyes hard for a moment. The adjust me is fast from the dim lighting of the house.
"Come on, lets go 'inform' Stefan." Damon says as he opens up the car door for me.
Just what I need, to go play games with Stefan. I wish he hadn't come back.